Script Writer, Visuals Director and Woodblock Co-Founder Jan Bitzer explains the studio’s approach to creating the visuals and story behind Illenium’s ODYSSEY experience at Sphere, answering the question: where do you even begin to conceptualize a project of this scale?
“From the start, we were focused on constructing a song-based, filmic language of key moments and symbols which would resonate with the audience and seamlessly propel the story forward.”
That approach shaped every decision. “ODYSSEY allowed us to conceptualise the show as a cinematic live experience, which we fused with the energy of the dance floor,” Jan continued. The result pushes beyond traditional concert production and continues the broader Illenium cinematic universe. For Woodblock, though, projects like this didn’t appear overnight.
The roots go back nearly twenty years.
Woodblock’s founders first met while studying at the Animationsinstitut at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg, Germany, a school known for its project-based approach to filmmaking.
The expectation was simple: make things. As Woodblock’s CEO Illija Brunck, remembers it: “They gave us computers and they said okay, now make films.” Their first major collaboration was a short film. That format became central to how they think. “Creating short films has quite a tradition at our studio. So this is kind of where we come from.”
Short films gave them a place to experiment, build process, and develop a visual language without compromise. Even now, that hasn’t changed. “Everything we are doing today is coming from that way. Those are the roots of where we started, creating a short film for us up to this day is still something very special.” Illija adds.
From Original Short Films to Immersive Worlds
Woodblock’s work is known for high-end CGI and cinematic production values, but the team speaks openly about the realities behind that. “High-end CGI is very expensive to create. You need a lot of very talented artists to create something of high quality,” Brunck admits.
Short films in particular rarely make financial sense. “You cannot make money with a short film” shares Illija.
But internally, they see original work differently. Original projects show what the studio believes in creatively. “There is incredible amount of value if we express our own creative vision” Illija asserts. That visibility becomes its own strategy.
“Only if we put our creative vision out there will we bring the right projects into the studio,” Illija includes in respect to why they invest in creating short films.
That same thinking carried into ODYSSEY. To support production at Sphere scale, Woodblock developed a 12K CG pipeline built around Universal Scene Description (USD) and Houdini Solaris. Simulation, scene assembly, procedural workflows and character-driven production all feed into the final visuals.
Alongside Houdini and Nuke, the studio relies on a growing collection of proprietary production tools and apps developed internally to support flexibility across large-scale projects. Woodblock also worked with previsualization studio The Third Floor to design and test how large narrative moments would function inside Sphere’s format.
One theme comes up repeatedly when speaking with the team: instinct.
The Chief Creative Officer Fabian Pit Pross describes creativity less as strategy and more as making ideas tangible. “There is this thing inside of us that gets us to create images that don’t exist in reality.” And that extends into decision making. “If we really like the stuff that we create, I think that’s the first indication of whether something will be successful,” Pit elaborates on their passion for creating short films.
That doesn’t mean certainty. Pross adds, “there’s always this sense of—is it good enough?” But over time, they’ve learned to trust the process.
“If it feels right in the stomach… that can be trusted,” Fabian finalizes.
That belief also informs how the studio thinks about ownership. The long-term goal isn’t only making ambitious work. It’s making work they can continue building.
As Pross puts it: “We want to be in control about what kind of content we create, what kind of stories we tell, and in what style we create it.”
That philosophy is part of why Sphere feels like a natural fit.
Woodblock CEO Ilija Brunck says around the opportunity: “Sphere is a technological marvel where we can see the future of immersive live entertainment unfold in real time.” And beyond the technology, he sees a broader shift. “Audiences are craving community-focused, high-quality experiences and Sphere is answering the call.”
For Pit , the ambition goes beyond a single show. “We have put all of our passion into crafting a world that has the depth to be built upon and brought to an audience beyond the physical limits of Sphere.” And ultimately, Pross adds, “we are driven to empower artists to follow their instincts rather than data, so together we can create new, unique perspectives.”
Illija adds, “If you express your creativity for yourself, people will come for your style.”
In short, art should not be a service. This is a principle that Rick Rubin has reasserted in them as well. July 3rd and 4th continues Illenium‘s Sphere run following 9 dates in March and April with artists such as Tape B, Slander, and Alok. Step inside the ‘Neo-Space Opera’ experience, watch out for the Easter eggs, and give Woodblock a shout out from the crowd.
After watching this official announcement video created by Woodblock go watch the original music video for ‘Forever’ and you will be able to see how the studio developed on Illenium’s imagery for ODYSSEY, the album.
Since those early days at the Animationsinstitut, Woodblock has grown into a 50-strong studio with offices in Ludwigsburg, Berlin and Los Angeles, specializing in animation, immersive experiences and visual storytelling for global artists and entertainment companies.
Before helping shape ILLENIUM’s ODYSSEY with the Sphere Studios lead by Carolyn Blackwood, Woodblock also contributed to Anyma‘s nights at Sphere, helping define another landmark moment in immersive performance. At the same time, Woodblock continues to develop original worlds of its own.
The studio recently launched Space Probe Force—its animated series released on YouTube—and continues to build on the same instincts visible in earlier original works including Bye Bear, Hola 4 Title Sequence, and Kreuzberg Dynamics.
Shattered with disbelief from what Woodblock has done, we are left to wonder, what is the next step with immersive experiences? The Sphere continues to conceptualize, implementing concepts such as snow falling from the sky and apples falling off trees into the crowd beneath the sphere dome. What if we could be the main character in the production? Would you even want that?
Maybe the perspective of a bird sitting in the tree that causes the ripple effect within the story would be enough for all the precious hearts out there. We may even have to sign a waiver before entering these upcoming immersive experiences.
Inside Illenium’s ODYSSEY at Sphere
Advances in spatial computing, AI-driven experiences, immersive audio, and volumetric capture are opening up entirely new ways to tell stories, creating experiences that feel responsive, embodied, and increasingly shaped by the audience rather than delivered to them.
You can explore some of the best media studios in the world by diving into who was at the FMX conference in Berlin this year, where Illija took on a panel session around ‘Visions of Change’ with Nicholas Cabana, co-founder, Claynosaurz, Fabian Driehorst, Co-Founder, CEO, Fabian&Fred and Katharina Weser, Co-Founder, CEO, Reynard Films & Yaga Studio for a in depth conversation between 4 studio leaders on how they think about the future of the animation industry.
